Later, He appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw Him after He had been resurrected. Mark 16: 14 HCSB

Rebuke.

While hiking I was struck by the tree on the left and how lush and green and full of life.

The tree on the right was dead.

We grow and flourish as we listen to Gods word and take action to change when He convicts us and rebukes us with His Word.

Listen and receive the rebuke.

Most of our family has given up coffee, but I still make it for one.

As the coffee drinker woke late to find no coffee, I simply said “Wake five minutes early and make it yourself.”

God immediately rebuked me quietly in my heart and I made the coffee and ran it to my beloved coffee drinker and handed a to go cup through the window.

My day had begun in the Word and contemplation just an hour before, but I had chosen a harsh response.

Conviction comes as we clear our minds and focus on the Word

The Lord will give us the self-control and Holy Spirit to do His will and be His vessel.

The rebuke put me back onto His path.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.” Proverbs 3:6

Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.”

I arrived home from a long day at work to find a strange, small, white dog staring at me in my foyer with a prison orange scarf tied around her neck.

I called my husband “The mobile groomers dropped the wrong dog at our home, it’s a Shitzu, but it’s not ours.”

It was 6pm, our groomers. closed.

All I could do was sit and think of our dog at someone else’s home.

The sun began to set into an array of pinks, lavender, and even orange.

Sighing in the dark the two big eyes stared up at me.

The prison escapee was ours!

What seemed like a disaster to me was great joy to her.

She ran around the house like batman on steroids, or a man freed from jail.

The groomers had completely shaved the hair on our dog, even the tail, face and whiskers were not spared the clippers. Pink skin was peeking out everywhere. Our dogs hair was normally 6-8 inches over its whole body much like a miniature sheep dog.

Cutting things out of your life gives you instant space and freedom.

More Quiet.

Remove enough encumbrances, not just hair, and it changes who you are.

Throw back the prison doors you’ve closed on yourself.

Sit in Gods glory.

Soak in His Word in the psalms praising Him.

Let Him transform you as you contemplate His wonders.

Thank Him for all He has done for you.

Space moved into your day allows time for God to cast his vision into your life.

I arrived at her home having received her distressed call. We really don’t have much in common except that we both worked as shop girls at some point in our lives and have great stories we share about our customers. Despite our differences we get along.

Gwen and I sat on her crisp, white slip covered sofa, , her pearl-colored cat slipping in right beside me. The air was filled with tension, and the fragrance the sweet smell of roses.

Her angular, modern home on Chicago’s North Shore was, as always, pristine. Like her home, Gwen, with her chiseled coal-black bob haircut and perfect makeup, was as equally and impeccably appointed in her dress and in her speech. The new gun-metal gray BMW she rarely drove sat quietly in the garage atop the white, oil free enameled floor. Her car was the same combination of outward beauty that hides the power below the surface. Snow fell outside, breathtaking from her large glass windows.

Chad had gone ballistic on her in the middle of a large home building supply store earlier in the day. He had previously degraded her privately, using words and calling her names that ought not be repeated, but she had previously overlooked them, quietly giving permission to use them again. For her, today was different as his profane put downs had an audience of store associates and contractors picking up supplies.

He always apologized and she always forgave him after the red long-stemmed roses would arrive. And he always returned to the same behavior after a brief period of being on his best behavior.

I asked her to read aloud from the Bible. This was a new thing for her, and God;s Words seemed like a foreign language to her.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints inheritance in the light.
He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes “I’m not worthy of a real relationship with God till I let go of Chad”
“I’m just not good enough”
“I love him, I can’t give him up”
We repeated the pattern of meeting, praying and seeing what God’s Word had to say to her.
She stepped out in faith.
She learned that Jesus will take us right where we are at.

She was imprisoned in her beautiful home, believing she was in a life she could not escape, chained to a man who was not her husband, but on this day the power of God’s Word healed her.

Long holiday conversations give opportunity to affirm others for all the traits you love and respect about them.

Some take the dance of a verbal self-indulgence.

A well placed put down lifts their ego.

But at whose expense?

“Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on high ground where you can point your fingers at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. ” (Romans 2:1, The Message)

The rain was heavy in Texas and everyone pitched in to shovel stinky fly covered manure.

Who knew mucking stalls could be such a cathartic experience. It was perfect timing after being on the receiving end of a hateful verbal assault.

The words stung and smelled and brought a bitter taste to my mouth as I breathed in the fumes of vitriol thoughts of another.

The pungent odor assaulted my nose and eyes as the scene flashed before my mind.

What happened to bring this upon myself?

Verbal offenses usually bounce off me, but this one stung.

The delivery was akin to vomit all over me.

In other words poor delivery, but yes I got the message.

How can I remove this branding from my brain?

What actually works to remove filth from your mind?

Unwholesome images and words the Lord does not want you to own.

Walking out the door before heading off to the barn, a dear friend

Linda Z. called and prayed over the phone with me.

I could hear the whipping pages of her bible as she spoke these words over me to our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Silence the ugliness…God your blood has set us apart. This is an opportunity. I surrender. Vengeance is yours. May truth knock them over. The words will not hinder nor rob Trish anymore. She is the daughter of a King and you dance over her. (Referencing Zephaniah 3:17) Trish has things to do for the Lord and she will not carry this with her. This is not for her she is in service to the King (Galatians 5) this thing before her is a horror movie and she will set no vile thing before her eyes. ”

Thank you Jesus.

We worked hard for about three hours filling wheelbarrows and tossing the contents over a cliff.

My family was leaving a Chinese restaurant after lunch on Christmas Eve in 2006. A little boy about 9 years old asked his Mom if he was Jewish? She said “No!” and the boy shouted back “RATS!”
He then asked “What I am?” Mom’s reply was too soft to hear. It was a teachable moment as we backed our car out of the parking lot. I asked our daughter the same question — “Who are you?”
I knew even before she answered she would say “Child of God,” because over the years we have sought to share our Christian faith and heritage with her, so that she may know she is fearfully and wonderfully created by God. The map to who we are, where we are and come from, must be communicated to our children, our neighbors, and our coworkers, those in our spheres of relationships as well as others who are not.

The Christmas season the world offers is a Retail Christmas. Though exchanging gifts brings great joy, without Christ at the center it will not lead us anywhere closer to the true essence of Christ and His message, but become a distraction at the very time of the year we set a day aside to celebrate Immanuel— God with us. Bumbling along in a haphazard existence will give our children a life with no identity, no sense of who they are, and open them up to other’s values and beliefs, man’s way and not God’s way. They will not have a map of life.

In Barbara Tompkins Mom’s Class last year we made Jesse Tree‘s ornaments. Our family systematically read through the story of Christ and hung ornaments on a small pink feather tree as our Christmas decorations were all packed and ready for our move the Texas the next week. It was a comical tree with a serious message in those Jesse Tree ornaments, the story of God found in the Bible, a message of

God’s love and provision of redemption found in Jesus Christ.

We are all unpacked this Christmas, and instead of the pink feathered tree, we are back to our home-grown artificial tree as we again tell the story of who we are in Christ by telling the story of God and his redemptive plan of salvation. Each ornament symbolizes an accompanying Bible story that, with the help of the book The Advent Jesse Tree, Devotions for Children and Adults Preparing for the Coming of Christ Child at Christmas (Nashville: Abington Press) directs us to a daily story from the Bible and provides songs of praise to sing as a family.

As Christmas arrives our anticipation is toward the greatest gift God has given the world — the birth of Jesus the Christ, God’s own Son, Immanuel — God with us. The Scriptures read throughout the month show us The Way, providing a clear and concise map of who we are, the identity we have in our Lord Jesus, the hope of glory.